DWAI Unlicensed Hit-and-Run Killer Not Charged for Death of Harlem Man

A driver who left a trail of carnage through East Harlem, killing an innocent bystander, has been sentenced to as little as a year in jail after she escaped charges for taking a life.

Robert Bond. Photo courtesy Deborah Bond

Simone Walters was driving down Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard on the night of July 21, 2011, when she struck Robert Bond at W. 119th Street, a short distance from Bond’s home. According to reports, Walters “never slowed down,” hitting another vehicle several blocks away and coming to a stop when she crashed into a parked car at E. 104th Street and Madison Avenue, having lost a wheel from her 2000 BMW.

Bond, a father of four, suffered severe head injuries and died hours later at Harlem Hospital.

Initial reports said Walters was charged with DUI, leaving the scene and driving with a suspended license. According to an online database of court records, no charges were issued for speeding or reckless driving. Since Walters’ blood alcohol content was measured at .06 percent, if a DUI charge was indeed issued, it was downgraded to driving while ability impaired. DWAI applies when a driver has a BAC of .05 to .07 percent or displays other evidence of impairment, and is classified as a traffic infraction, or a misdemeanor for repeat offenses.

Under New York State law, in order to sustain a charge of vehicular homicide, prosecutors must be able to prove that impairment caused a motorist to operate a vehicle in a manner that caused death. Presumably, since Walters’ BAC was below the .08 standard for intoxication, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance did not charge her with vehicular homicide. Walters eventually pleaded guilty to a top charge of leaving the scene of an incident that resulted in death, a Class D felony, and in June was sentenced to one to three years in prison.

A motorist with a suspended license, who has been drinking, mortally wounds a man, pinballs through more than a dozen city blocks, crashing into other vehicles until a wheel falls off her car, and is not charged for killing. How can this be?

“What they said was once the officer chased her down and got her, they took her to Harlem Hospital. She needed some work done on her,” said Deborah Bond, Robert Bond’s widow, in a phone interview with Streetsblog. “So after two hours, taking her blood level, it was down already. So they didn’t charge her with drunken driving.”

“After two hours,” said Bond, “of course your blood level is going to be down.”

As usual in a pedestrian fatality case, there is also the question of what additional tools, if any, prosecutors may have had at their disposal.

Simone Walters crashed into two other vehicles after striking Bond, coming to a stop some 15 blocks away. Photo: DNAinfo

We do know that if Vance feels hamstrung by current law, he isn’t letting on. While he has shown leadership on a number of issues in his two and a half years as district attorney, including domestic violence, DNA collection, and even the ivory trade, he has kept relatively quiet on matters of traffic justice. The same can be said of other top city prosecutors, whose names are as a rule conspicuously absent from efforts by state legislators to reform statutes that favor drivers who injure and kill. Said one attorney we spoke with, of the Vance team: “You’ve got an army of attorneys up there. Write some damn laws.”

“To be chased down from 119th Street to 110th Street — she was trying to get away,” said Bond. “When they caught her she was on three wheels, the windshield shattered, the car bloodied up, and you tell me in the courtroom that you thought you hit a ball? That’s exactly what Simone Walters said: she thought she had hit a ball.”

So impotent is the New York traffic justice system that what is remarkable about this case isn’t that Walters was not charged for killing, but that she received any jail time at all. One source told us that a one to three year prison term is “higher than the average” for leaving the scene, and speculated that the judge was incensed by the circumstances of the crash.

This is no consolation to the victim’s loved ones, who endured an emotional last day in court.

“My daughter, she was going after [Walters’] whole family,” said Bond. “Once I read my statement it all boiled up and she just took off after them. The officers, they accepted our apology because, I guess, just hearing what [Walters] had done.”

“I don’t think that she got the time she was supposed to have gotten. She didn’t pay for her wrong. She should never have been behind the wheel again, and I just can’t understand how they let this happen like that.”

Revealing these cases to be the utter embarrassments that they are, long after the tabloid media has moved on from the gory police blotter reports, is really important work. Thank you. The way the criminal justice system handles the maiming and killing of innocent victims in automobile incidents is wholly unacceptable.

Ben Kintisch

This is where the somewhat unsexy behind the scenes lobbying work of T.A. Up in Albany makes a difference. It seems to be a slow and arduous process to untangle the laws that seem to prevent justice in vehicular homicides. But it’s worth it.

TUWANA ADAMS

Unbelievable such an injustice this vis hav been any one of us but I believe n karma n justice wil b served by the grace.of God I truly believe this RIPBOB

KEISHA COLLINS

maybe not 2day !but one day tables will turn !!!!!! me being his oldiest child i sat n that courtroom with my family the day ms walters was sentenced to her term ! NEITHER HER NOR HER FAMILY SHOWED ANY REMORSE, I TRULY BELIEVE THAT SHE WILL GET ALL SHE DESERVES.. LOVE U DADDY MAY U SIP….

Tb43

GOD HAS A PLAN FOR HER THAT’S ALL I HAVE TO SAY! TO MY BFF KEEP THE FAITH KEISHA. I LOVE YOU! S.I.P BOBBY

Pebblesslade

My deepest and most heartfelt condolences for the loss of ur loved one- smh….I pray that you all will allow God to work in ur hearts for forgiveness- I know it’s difficult, and one of the hardest things for ME to do, is pray for someone that I DON’T WANT TO PRAY FOR- but you know what? We are commisioned to love and forgive- I know ur probably thinking easier said than done, but I lost my dad 2yrs ago, and we had a really close father/daughter relationship; well members on my dad’s side I found out to be HATERS- and that really hurt me how I was treated by some of my paternal relatives- but I had to forgive them- I hope ur family forgives the offender in this situation- IJNA~